Customers have been forced to wait up to 90 minutes to speak to someone on the My Aged Care hotline. Picture: Thinkstock

The Department of Health has revealed callers to the government’s My Aged Care hotline have been forced to endure long wait times and thousands of clients a week are hanging up on the service.

National Seniors chief executive Michael O’Neill said it was “unacceptable” older Australians were being confronted with poor customer service at a time when they were facing a considerable degree of uncertainty about their future.

“This is a very demanding, challenging and stressful time for people and it is a time when good service delivery is critical,” Mr O’Neill said.

National Seniors chief executive Michael O’Neill said navigating the aged care system was often extremely stressful. Picture: ThinkstockSource:News Limited

“Waiting for up to 90 minutes, those responses are unacceptable generally in the community, but they are particularly unacceptable when you are talking about older Australians seeking information,” he said.

Data released by the government to the Senate, shows a number of customers waited on hold for more than an hour to speak to someone at the My Aged Care hotline between July and August last year, with the longest wait time 90 minutes and 78 seconds.

While answering times improved later in the year, customers were still waiting up to 17 minutes for someone to pick up the phone in November.

And in the period since July 2015, up to 6553 people a week hung up on the service because their calls were going unanswered.

Thousands of callers a week were hanging up on the My Aged Care line. Picture: ThinkstockSource:News Limited

Mr O’Neill said there was “a degree of urgency” for the government to continue to improve customer service on the My Aged Care hotline, particularly because many older Australians do not have access to the internet.

“I think there is too much reliance on the website, and for the cohort going through (the aged care system) now that doesn’t have access to it, you need to compliment the website with a really high quality telephone system,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Assistant Minister for Health Ken Wyatt said the roll out of the central My Aged Care service had been “a major adjustment for both service providers and consumers.”

But she said wait times had reduced over the six months to December.

“Leading into 2016 the aim will be to maintain this new service level and to focus on the quality and efficiency of the client journey through My Aged Care and into appropriate aged care services,” the spokeswoman said.